For my final Blogtober post, I want to share the Blogtober legacy. The last challenge is that I give some blog post ideas. Let me do some tweaking.

I will share with you a new monthly challenge that you can try yourself.

I call it the Slambook Challenge.

Here is how it goes.
You know those little answer books that we used to force our friends to fill up? It contains details of their likes, dislikes, beliefs and a message to the owner of the book at the end. In the Philippines, we call it a slambook or an autograph book.

The point of the Slambook Challenge is that a slambook question will be posted. Based on the question, the challenger will post a minimum of 500-word entry for that day. There is an option for a daily challenge for a month. There is an option for a yearlong challenge wherein there will be 12 challenges per month and four posts must be done for that specific challenge month.

For example, the question is “What is your favorite color?” Now, based on that question, you have to post a 500-word entry. The challenge is to think out of the box because how can you say that blue is your favorite color in a minimum of 500 words?
If you are a lifestyle blogger, then you can expand the post by writing about the psychology of color and its relevance to a person’s mood.
If you are a fashion blogger, then you can post your fashion items in a specific color or the trendy colors for the season.
If you are a cooking blogger, then you can post recipes using oranges or a specific color group.
If you are a mom blogger then maybe you can post about the color swashes that you use on your kids annd how they react to them.
If you are a review blogger then you can post a review for a title with a color in it (Orange Is The New Black, The Colour Purple, Yellow, R.E.D)
If you are a health blog then you can post the significance of color in different medical situations.

These are merely suggestions on how you can fulfill that 500-word entry. Of course, if you can explain your favorite color in 500 words then that works too.

The 31 Slambook Monthly Challenge Questions

What is your name?

How old are you?

What is your gender?

When is your birthday?

Where do you live?

How many siblings do you have?

How did we meet?

Who are your friends?

What is your favourite color?

What is your favourite food/drink?

What is your favourite movie?

What is your favourite song/singer?

What is your favourite book?

What is your favourite quote?

What is your favourite school subject?

What is your favourite fashion item?

What is your favourite holiday?

Who is your favourite celebrity?

What are your hobbies?

What are your interests?

What are your fears?

Share a memorable experience.

Who is your crush?

Define love.

Define life.

What is your dream job?

What is your superpower?

What is your life-long dream?

If given all the opportunities, where do you want to go for a vacation/migration?

Are you happy?

Dedication

The 12 Yearlong Slambook Challenge Questions

What is your name?

When is your birthday?

Who are your friends?

What is your favourite color?

What is your favourite movie?

Who is your favourite celebrity?

What is your favourite school subject?

What are your fears?

Define love.

What is your life-long dream?

Are you happy?

Dedication.

That is it.

The Slambook Challenge

This is my last post for the Blogtober Challenge. This is me giving an opportunity for other bloggers to experience the same love, support, pride, frustration, stress, happiness, and fulfillment that I experienced while doing this challenge.

Thank you for supporting me. I invite you to try this challenge, or the one that I had just created, or just a challenge. Will you?

Three days to go before the end of October.
This is my first Thankful Thursday post.
I could not help but feel sentimental.

2013 was the best year of my existence. It is funny since it is the year after the dreaded end of the world.
September 2014 was the start of the worst year of my life. September 2015 just ended, I know. Does it mean that my worst year is over?

I am not certain. All I know that September 2015 was the start of me rising up from my own ashes.
I feel like baby Fawkes as I typed that last bit.

I have a lot to be thankful for. The mere fact that I am already on my first step of recovery is something to be thankful for.
There are a lot of things to be thankful for because I would not be recovering because of them.

This must be the most challenging one so far. Today’s challenge is about Christmas lists. Funny, isn’t it? The past few challenges were easy for me that I got drafts written days before the actual challenge. I have a framework for every post until the end. But, for this one, I had a blank one.

This is my first chance that I have ever experienced not having a Christmas list. I recall last year that I was wishing for any modern publication and those 4-in-1 smartphone clip lens. Now that I think of it, I made that wish because I was compelled to because of an gift exchange activity that I had with my closest friends. I got both. The year before that I wished for a specific book (can’t remember what) because of a similar activity among my training class. I got a coffee maker instead. I did not mind. 2013 was the best year of my existence anyway.

If those activities did not exist then I would not have a Christmas list to make in the first place.

During my school days, I always had an extensive list and it was more or less the same because I did not get it. I would wish for a PSP, a Sponge Cola CD, the latest phone, and other things. I got none of those during Christmas. I may be a gamer but my last portable gaming console was the Brick Game. I got the Sponge Cola CDs only within the school year when I have enough funds from all the sidetrip selling that I was doing. I never got the latest phone. Still don’t have it. I have phones that are at least 5 years behind the latest model.

I was happy nevertheless. I received things that I did not know that I wanted during Christmas (and other holidays). A candy pink Kate Spade handbag. A Doctor Who anthology book. A PS3. A wide array of coloring materials. A licensed replica of the Elder Wand. A light-up Marauders’ Map. A Twilight paperback (In my honest opinion, the series was a nice read. I am not a fan of the movies though. Sorry.) A Potatohead Family toy collection. So on and so forth. They were all amazing surprises.

I was happy nevertheless. I was raised not to get attached to material things. If I did not get what I want then it was okay. There is always a next time. If not, then something better will always come.

At the end of the day or in this case the year, I may not get what I wanted but I get what I needed.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree with enough recognition to make my parents smile with glee whenever they talk about my schooling to others. I am getting healthier and healthier each year. I got the job of our dreams as a family. I live in our family-owned house. I never begged for scraps. I was born into a family of five. We are still five in the family. I grew up with my folks always at home.

Perhaps, that is why I learned to not make Christmas wishes. I have no need to ask for what I need. I’m just lucky, I guess.

I am a hypocrite if I will say that I do not aspire material things anymore. I want a portable Bluetooth speaker. I want a portable Android-compatible keyboard with a detachable MicroUSB cord. I still want a phone but not the latest but the one that feels as if it was designed personally for me. I want a car. I want my own residential unit. I want a replica of David Tennant’s Doctor’s brown trenchcoat (Imagine walking or running around London wearing it. Ahh). I want a pair of Nike Fly Knits.

Why am I not asking them for Christmas? Because I know I will have them someday so there is no need. Plus, I doubt I would have any of them by Christmas.

I love Christmas. I love it more than my own birthday. So, for this Christmas, I am making a Christmas list. This is not because I am compelled by this task. It is because I am compelled by the experiences that I have gone through this past two years.

1. I wish for the optimum health possible for my family for years to come.

My grandfather died last year. I knew that day would come eventually. I thought I was prepared. More than a year later, I still lament when I think of him. I don’t think that I could take it if I lose another family member. Don’t mind me. I’d wager my own health for the assurance of a long lifespan for each member of our family.

2. I wish for more opportunities for the Philippines and its people.

Like I said before, we have great potential. I will be extremely glad if more Filipinos get recognized nationally and internationally not only because of their beauty but also of their intellect, talent, and skill. I will also be extremely glad if the Filipino people will help one another in lifting each other up for a better nation for more generations to come. As of the current, the Philippines is number one in the list of most corrupt nations, worst traffic schemes, and worst airports. Good, right?

3. I wish for more environmental consciousness and action worldwide.

Ever since, I have been eco-conscious. I throw my garbage in the right places. I avoid plastic and styrofoam. I maximize paper. I recycle things. I upcycle. Things had been unsettling. This time last year, I remember shivering to the bone when I am in Korea. I remember wrapping myself in a blanket during the evening at home. I remember wearing a leather jacket because I want to and not because I need to. This year, I can roam around the cold parts of the world with less layers than I did last year. I break a sweat whenever I am home despite the rainy season. It is even too hot for me to wear long sleeves. What more a jacket? Is it because I am getting used to the cold? Is it because the world is getting hotter? Please God, make it the former.

The United Nations has recently launched the Global Goals worldwide campaign. If you have an advocacy that you are passionate about then please do go check it out. Honestly, you don’t need to be passionate. A little concern goes a long way.

So, that is my 2015 Christmas wishlist. I will have my toes crossed and my fingers working to have it fulfilled. I believe that wishes are just words if you don’t take action.

27 Blogtober challenges completed. I know that it is too early to rejoice but I could not help it. I am just so excited and I just can’t hide it. (Made you sing, hahahah)

For now, I am to share my favourite shopping spots.

Technically, I like any place with a big “SALE” sign.

But, when I am in a shopping center, the places that I look for are hobby shops. I love fandom memorabilia, figures, comic books, board games, building kits, DIY things, and all those other things you see in a hobby shop. I could spend a good hour for just looking (or deciding what to buy when I have the funds). I also like to search an area for charity or thrift shops. I feel like I’m inside a piece of history whenever I scan the racks and shelves.

When I am in my home court, I have one favorite shop. Book Sale. It is a chain of secondhand book stores scattered all around the nation. You can find a wide array of books from coffee table finds, collegiate references, self-help, non-fiction, magazines, local publications, graphic novels, and fiction.

I am proud to say that 89% of my book collection came from Book Sale.

During my uni years, I had enough cash to spend on myself but I did not want to have it all gone at the expense of one newly released book. So, I would go to Book Sale and scan the shelves.

I had two priorities whenever I go there.

1. To find a first edition Bloomsbury Harry Potter Hardbound book.

2. To find a book included in the list of the 50 books that I should read before I died.

Three years since I started my book scavenging…

… I only have to search for the Philosopher’s Stone to complete all seven Harry Potter books.

… I have 20 of all 50 books to read before I die.

… I have at least six uncompleted book series.

… I have loads of sidetrip purchases like literary classics, Shakespearean references, modern publications, tutorial books, and graphic novels.

I am addicted. I know. No, I refuse rehabilitation.

I find the happiness of finding a coveted book among the stacks and stacks of books there. Its like a treasure hunt there.

On the last week of Blogtober, I could not help but rejoice. This is momentous for me. I am about to completely finish a task for the first time.

For today, I am tasked to share my favourite book or magazine.

I am a bookworm before anything else. My bonding time with my mother when I was little (sometimes we still do it now) is to sit down beside each other on the sofa and read whatever we chose to at that moment.

My bookshelf (not 100% is in this photo)

I also dream to be a mother. A good mother.

For me, my books are my children. A good mother does not have a favourite child. Consequently, I have no favourite book or magazine. I do not even have a favourite author.

I have fiction, non-fiction, religion, self-help, and Doctor Who (it has its own category)

Old fairy tale hardcovers and children’s books

I have to admit that my first edition Bloomsbury published Harry Potter set is their big brother. Not my favourite. It was just that I was a Potterhead first before I became an avid fan of anything else.

My fictional series books. None of them are complete as they are all thrift store finds so bought them individually. Another stack and stack of books are behind this one. Obviously, I need a bigger shelf.

What is a hobby? Well, it is an activity that you enjoy engaging into during your past time.

Now, I have already established that, besides blogging, I also write creative literature. I have also established that I love to read and watch movies. Sometime during the Blogtober challenge, I made a point to say that music is an important factor in my life.

I am a self-proclaimed artist. I can draw, paint, build, and create. Basically, any handy job will make me happy.

I will not discuss that. It is a blog feature so it will be redundant of me to talk about a hobby that I know will show up here eventually.

So, I am discussing a hobby of mine that will not be featured here anymore or as frequent as it should.

I am currently in San Francisco, California. It is my first time here so I am rather excited. Unfortunately, all my colleagues did not want to go and explore as they have flown here a few times already. I had no choice but to get my ‘Dora the Explorer’ on and roam around downtown San Francisco alone.

For my top, it is a white long-sleeved shirt adorned with thread baubles and glimmer.

For my bottoms, I chose some tan cropped pants.

My outerwear is sleeveless cardigan lined with crocheted edging.

All of these I got at bazaars and sales.

My bag is a recent purchase from Forever 21 which I also bought during a sale.

My shoes are nude Tory Burch flats with a gartered back. This was a gift from my brother last Christmas. He is cute like that as he splurges for the family. I also believe that one reason why he bought me one is because I am too much for a cheapskate when it comes to buying stuff for myself. Even if I could, I would not buy myself my own pair. I’ll have to make sure that my funds are really in excess then I might consider.

Outfit of the Day

So, this is the outfit when worn. Forgive the buldgey appearance of the top. I had a thermal shirt underneath as it was colder in the morning as I expected.

TIP ONE: Invest in thermals especially when you are travelling. I get mine at Marks & Spencer. Their thermals are lightweight and are good for layering. Also, it can repel colder temperatures than others that I have tried.

As you can see, I used the cardigan as a scarf. I wrapped it around my neck and fashioned it to look like a chunky infinity scarf.

TIP TWO: Be imaginative to maximize your clothes. I used the cardigan as a scarf in the morning because my neck was bare as it was quite chilly. When it came to the evening, I unraveled it from my neck and wore it as it should to protect my body from the cold gusty winds as my torso is vulnerable to such conditions. With this practice, I appear to have more clothing items than I really do which is a huge help in the budget.

What do you think? Do you have any fashion suggestions? Share it in the comments.

Quite ambitious if I do say so myself.
The numbers are easy. Let me discuss the last item about the daily project.

So, Blogtober inspired me and pushed me to my writing and management limits. I have written things that I did not think that I could think of in a span of five hours or less.

I like pushing myself so I’m going overboard and starting a 365 daily project starting 1 January 2016.
It is like there are too many signs. While in the midst of all the Blogtober chaos, I bought this book called Recharge Your Design Batteries. It is a nice book. Go check it out.

He sounded familiar and so I scanned the pages to find out that he was the mastermind behind the Skull-a-Day project which was featured in that creativity book that I bought. I was already inspired by him then to push on with Blogtober but to find a journal that he actually wrote… I bought it in an instant.

So yeah, I’m going to do a daily project for a year. If Mr. Scalin chose skulls then I choose planes.

Why? I love to fly. I love the wind. I love the freedom.

And because I have already published my intention to create this project then I have no choice but to push on with it unless I want to be a laughing stock.

Honestly, I need all the help and support that I could get.

And since I am all about goals today then I might as well stretch it. By 2017, I am to publish my own book.